by Lisa Olsen
There was such concern on his face, I at least knew one thing hadn’t changed. “Yep, I am. How did the surgery go, did my tonsils come out okay?” I offered a bland smile.
“Yeah… it went smooth as clockwork.” He left the chair, coming to the side of the bed, clearly still worried about me. “You don’t, ah… remember waking up after the surgery?”
“You mean in the recovery room? No,” I lied smoothly. “Hey, is there any water? I’m so thirsty.”
“Sure, darlin’.” Parker gave me a relieved smile, getting up to fill a plastic cup from the tap.
“You know I had the funniest dream. I dreamt I was here to have a baby and they lost it,” I forced a laugh. “Crazy, huh?”
“That’s some crazy dream alright,” he chuckled, sitting on the side of the bed to hold the cup for me. “Was it mine?”
“That’d be kinda rushing things a little, don’t you think?” I raised a brow, taking a long sip, trying to gauge where things stood between us.
“A little,” he agreed, setting the cup aside when I was through. “But someday maybe.” Parker picked up my hand and gave it a squeeze.
So, we were definitely together, good to know. “I thought Daphne would be here when I woke up. Is she around?”
“You just missed her, she had to take off for work. Listen, are you really feeling alright?”
“Yep, I feel fine. Why?” I searched his face, wondering if he’d tell me, but instead he shook his head.
“No reason, I’m just glad you’re alright.”
“My throat is a little sore, but I’m sure I’ll be healed up in no time.”
“That’s true, you sound normal, not hoarse or scratchy at all.”
“You know, I’m feeling so good, I think maybe I’ll check out instead of staying overnight.”
His face instantly clouded with worry. “I’m not so sure that’s a good idea. They have those guidelines for a reason. If it’s the money…”
“No, that’s not it.” I cut him off before he offered to pay for my bogus surgery. “But you know me… if I stick around they may start to ask why I’m healing so fast.” It was a calculated risk. If he didn’t remember anything about angels or the Grace, he’d think I’d stepped off into the deep end again. Luckily, he seemed to know exactly what I meant.
“I can see how that might be a problem. Okay, I’ll help you with this prison break,” he winked. “But we go straight home and you go right to bed, no arguments. Deal?”
“Deal,” I smiled, letting out a long breath once he turned away. I hated to use him like that, but I had to get out of there and it was the best way I could see short of jumping out the window.
I sat there with a placid smile on my face while the doctor came to examine me, feigning total ignorance of the earlier “episode”. With Parker on my side promising round the clock care, he reluctantly signed my release papers. And then it was a quick forty-five minute wait until they finally wheeled me out of the room.
My toes tapped with impatience the entire time, but I did my best to keep my cool, vowing not to deviate from the plan until I was in a safe place. Parker drove me to his house, confirming we definitely still lived together, and once again I wondered where the line was drawn. What other parts might be scrubbed from his memory?
Chapter Twenty-Two
It felt good to be up and around again when we got to the house, and the soreness I experienced quickly faded. Still, I let Parker take my arm to help me up the stairs and I accepted his offer of a cup of tea once he had me settled in our bed in my own PJs. The moment I heard him reach the bottom of the stairs I was out of bed like a shot, creeping down the hallway to Bunny’s room.
The room was still painted a pale blue, but the crib, the changing table… all the baby things, they were all gone. Only the rocking chair still sat by the window, looking forlorn without its stuffed penguin. A lump rose in my throat as I resisted the urge to sit in the chair and rock; I had to get back to bed to think things through.
True to his word, Parker stuck by my side like glue, ever anxious to keep me happy. I suppose he was worried I’d start spouting nonsense again, but I’d learned my lesson in the hospital. I wasn’t about to mention Bunny again until I had something to support my claim, and all I had to do was wait until dark.
I pretended to read a book while he took care of some work on his laptop, but I couldn’t focus on the plot. There was too much riding on whether or not Nelo put in an appearance after sundown. I guess I could have gone down to the basement looking for him, but it would have been too hard to explain away if he wasn’t there and I couldn’t figure out a good way to ask Parker if he remembered the demon living in our basement.
Nelo came up after the sun went down, a small plate of oreos in hand. “Are you well, Mistress?”
“Nelo!” Pulling him into my arms, I hugged him tight, the cookies forgotten. I’d half expected him to be gone, and I was so relieved, I lost some of my tight control. “I’m so glad to see you.”
“You just saw him yesterday.” Parker shook his head in amusement, looking up from his laptop.
“Right,” I smiled, releasing my death grip on the poor little guy. “But I really wanted some Oreos.” I picked one off the bedspread and shoved it into my mouth. “I don’t suppose you could get me a glass of milk?” I gave Parker a hopeful smile.
“I can fetch that for you, Mistress.” Nelo started away, but I held fast to his arm.
“No, I need you to, um… do some mending for me. I’ll show you what needs it. Parker, could you please get the milk? It’s time for your coffee right about now, too. Isn’t it?”
Parker gave me an odd look, but closed the laptop with a sigh. “Sure, no problem. Are you sure you don’t want your usual cup of java too?”
Right. Because I could drink caffeine again if I wasn’t pregnant. “Actually, you’re right. Coffee sounds so much better. You know how I like it,” I smiled winsomely. Parker left without argument, and I held on to Nelo’s arm until I guessed he’d reached the first floor.
“Is there something troubling you, Mistress?” Nelo fretted, his distress palpable. I eased my grip on his arm, worried I’d hurt him.
“Yes, there is something troubling me big time,” I confided, keeping my voice low. “Please tell me you remember the baby.”
“I remember the baby.”
Unfortunately, that could mean he was parroting back what I wanted to hear. “No… wait. Don’t say what I told you to say, tell me if you remember me being pregnant at all.”
“Of course, Mistress.” His brow remained furrowed with concern even as his eyes dropped to my midsection. “When you did not return last night, I thought she might have come by now but I don’t smell anyone else in the house. Where is she?”
“You can smell how many people are in the… wait, nevermind.” I shook my head, focusing on the bigger importance of what he’d just said. “You definitely remember her then, my baby. Mine and Adam’s.”
“I have not met her yet, but yes, of course I do. Why would I not?”
“Thank God,” I breathed, eyes closing for a moment. Not that I really thought I was nuts, but I felt a world of better at getting that confirmation. “She’s missing. And not only that, no one even remembers I was pregnant in the first place.”
Nelo took a moment to digest that, blinking at me owlishly. “That is most strange, Mistress. How could they not remember?”
“I have no idea, but Parker, Daphne, the people at the hospital - they thought I was nuts when I started talking about my baby and all her stuff is gone from the nursery. We have to figure this out, Nelo, you and me.”
“No one has been here in your absence, I would have known it. Even during the day.” We sat in silence for a few minutes, munching on Oreos as we tried to figure out what it all meant. “Why not call Master Adam?” he asked finally.
“Adam doesn’t care about our problems, Nelo. For all I know he doesn’t remember a thing about the baby anymore either.”
&nb
sp; “He is not human, he may have an idea how it was done.”
“That’s possible, but I already tried calling him, and nothing.” Even if he’d been far away at the time it had been hours since I called for him at the hospital and not a peep. Then again, he might not be all that inclined to come when I called after the way we’d left things between us.
“Why not try Sam then?”
“You are a genius,” I grinned, dropping a kiss on the top of his head. “Samael?” We sat around expectantly, and I called his name again a few times, but the only one who came into the room was Parker, a plastic tray in his hands.
Forgetting the pretense of taking it easy anymore, I hopped out of bed, armed with an ally this time when I confronted him. “Parker, Nelo remembers Bunny! See, I told you I’m not crazy,” I gushed, only to have Parker’s brows draw together into a single line.
“Not this again… you said you didn’t remember any of that stuff.”
“Yeah, well, you wouldn’t have let me come home if I hadn’t pretended, would you?” Without waiting for an answer I pulled open dresser drawers looking for regular clothes to wear. None of the maternity clothes were there, of course, but I was glad to get into my jeans again.
“I think I’d better call the doctor…”
“Don’t you dare,” I shot him a look. “Don’t you get it? Nelo remembers me being pregnant, just like I told you. I’m not nuts. Someone stole her and erased all of your memories about her.”
“Yeah, because that makes sense.”
“Think about it. Sam’s prophecies talk about me being the mother of a new race without original sin and all that jazz. Ben kidnapped me to try and help Azazael be reborn through me…” From the look on his face, he didn’t remember any of that either. “Nelo remembers it all, don’t you Nelo?”
“I do, Mistress,” he smiled brightly, but Parker wasn’t buying it.
“Nelo would say anything to make you happy,” he muttered in disgust. “I’m pretty sure I’d remember if you were having my baby.”
“She’s not yours.”
“What?” He looked as if I’d socked him in the gut.
“She’s Adam’s,” I said as gently as I could, but a scowl still formed on his face.
“I thought we agreed not to mention him.”
“I don’t remember making any such agreement, so I’m thinking it doesn’t count. Look, you can stick your head in the sand about this all you want, but it doesn’t change the fact that my baby is out there somewhere. A baby you agreed to raise as you own, by the way, and I can think of at least three factions that would like to get their hands on her.” If it wasn’t Ben and Azazael, maybe Raum had gotten it into his head to come after her as a way to regain his hold over me? And hadn’t Lucifer said he had his own plans for her?
“I agreed to raise Adam’s baby as my own?” Parker scoffed. “That doesn’t sound like me at all.”
“We were sort of a package deal. Why, are you saying you wouldn’t?” That brought me up short. I’d been so used to Parker offering his love and support for the past several months, it was hard to get into his frame of mind. I didn’t know what kind of memories were swimming around in his head about the past six months, but I imagined news of an instant baby would be pretty jarring. That Parker hadn’t gone to the doctor’s appointments with me, or attended childbirth class. What did he even know about babies? He’d never crafted a nursery or asked me to marry him to be a father for my child.
“Mercy… you’re asking me to accept a lot on faith here.” He paced uncomfortably at being put on the spot.
“You never proposed to me, did you?”
“Propose marriage? What else happened in bizarro land where you live?”
It cemented my belief that he never would have asked to marry me if I hadn’t been pregnant, and I felt vindicated in deciding to call the wedding off. But where did that leave us? We’d have to redo every conversation for the past half year trying to figure out where we stood with each other. I sank onto the end of the bed, a little lost for having one of the cornerstones of my life crumble under the pressure. “It’s all gone, isn’t it? Everything we shared together.”
“It’s not all gone, Merce.” Parker sat beside me, picking up my hand and loosely holding it in his own. “I love you, you know that, don’t you?” At least that hadn’t changed, and I gave him a weak smile. “This is a lot for me to swallow all at once. I mean look at you, you don’t look like you just gave birth.”
“It’s the Grace.” I shook my head miserably. “I have to get her back, Parker. I can’t just accept that she’s gone.”
“Alright, if you say so, we’ll get her back,” he said with determination. I appreciated the effort, but I could tell he still didn’t really believe me. “As for marriage… I can’t say I haven’t thought about it before, but I thought you wanted to take things slow. It was hard enough to talk you into moving in here with me.” He grinned and I wished I could see his memory of how that conversation went.
“Mistress, I could seek out my brethren. Perhaps I can find out if anyone knows where Bunny has been taken.”
I’d almost forgotten Nelo was in the room, he’d been so quiet, watching the conversation with big eyes. It wasn’t quite like the tempestuous arguments I’d gotten into with Adam, but I could tell any conflict made him nervous. “That’s a fantastic idea, Nelo. I’d love it if you could try and find something out. Just be careful.”
“I would gladly brave much more to find her. We are family, are we not?”
“Yes, Nelo, we’re still a family, and we’ll figure this out.” I sent him a jolt of Grace so he’d have plenty of energy to pop between shadows on his search.
“So, we’re married with a kid on the way in this other reality, huh? I guess I can’t complain too much about that,” Parker remarked once Nelo left.
“No, we didn’t get married.”
“But I did propose?”
“Yep, you did, twice.”
“Why didn’t we get married then?”
“Because when you asked me…” I considered not getting into it, but decided to go with honesty. “I didn’t love you the same way you loved me.”
Parker took the news in stride, looking down at our joined hands. “But we are together, right?”
“Yes, Parker, we’re definitely together.” I leaned forward to kiss him, glad to find something else that hadn’t changed. “In your memory, are we sleeping together?” I asked as the kiss broke, wondering what else might be different between us.
“What do you think?” he smirked.
Ugh, and I missed it?
“I’m just kidding, darlin’,” he chuckled at seeing my expression. “Technically we sleep in the same bed, but you said you wanted to take things slow and I’m… learning patience.”
“Then you and I never…”
“Not yet, no, but I’m hopeful.”
“Oh, good.” I breathed easier. “I kinda wanted us to have our first time together… together.”
“This has got to be one of the weirdest conversations I’ve ever had.”
“That makes two of us,” I agreed wholeheartedly.
“Call it an uneven three,” Adam smirked from the doorway.
Chapter Twenty-Three
“Jesus Christ.” I dropped Parker’s hand to clutch at my chest where my heart beat a mile a minute.
“Nope, just me,” Adam grinned. From the lack of reaction from Parker, I guessed he’d kept himself imperceptible to the human eye.
“What’s wrong?”
Parker drew my attention, but I was at a loss for what to say. I knew he didn’t want to hear Adam’s name, but it felt wrong to talk around the fact that Adam had made himself comfortable in Parker’s favorite chair by the window. “I, um… it’s…”
“Did you know there’s a fat Armenian couple squatting in your apartment?” Adam continued as if Parker hadn’t spoken.
“I live here now.”
“Yeah, you do.�
� Parker’s head tilted to one side to study me carefully. “Or didn’t you in that other reality?”
“I have to say I kinda like your old place better. This one is bigger, but it has too much… I dunno, Parker in it,” Adam grimaced.
“No, I did, I do.” I turned back to Parker, starting to get a headache.
“Why didn’t you move into the house I left for you?”
“Because I didn’t want your stupid guilt money, or your car, or anything else,” I spat at Adam, completely losing the ability to carry on both conversations simultaneously.
“Who are you talking to?”
“Uh oh, the jig is up, sweetcheeks. I think he’s on to us.”
Instead of playing that game, I answered Parker honestly. I had nothing to hide, not anymore. “Adam.”
“Adam is here,” Parker replied blankly.
“In the flesh.” Adam flashed his eyes at me playfully, still remaining hidden from sight.
“Could you please not do that right now? I’m having a hard enough time getting him to believe I’m not making up too many other things at the moment.”
“Okay, okay, chill.” Adam must have made himself visible, because Parker immediately bristled.
“What’s he doing here?”
“Hey, she called me, pal. Didn’t you?” Adam gave me that lazy smile, the one that used to melt my toes. At that moment it made me want to smack him upside the head for deliberately trying to rile Parker up.
“Okay, she called, you came, now you can be on your way.” Parker’s eyes narrowed and I got to see a new side of him. Pure male jealousy. If he ever felt it about Adam’s presence before, he kept it tightly controlled.
“I think that’s for the lady to decide.”
“Last time I checked this was my house, pal.” Parker rose to his feet, and I caught hold of his hand, sending calming Grace to soothe his nerves.
“Can I have a few minutes to talk to him, please?” Parker eased, but didn’t relax his stance. “Please, Parker?”
He stared at Adam a few seconds longer before nodding. “I’m gonna go down and get a drink. You want one too?”